Fully Booked by Kirkus Reviews

TV personality and bestselling author Ross Mathews joins us on this week’s episode to discuss Name Drop: The Really Good Celebrity Stories I Usually Only Tell at Happy Hour (Atria). Mathews graciously brings us behind the scenes of talk shows and awards shows, and shares some of his best red carpet interview tips with host Megan Labrise. And in a sponsored interview, Megan talks with actor, musician, comedian, and writer Steven Banks, author of Middle School Bites (Holiday House), a funny new middle-grade novel for vampire-werewolf-zombie fans. Then our editors join with their reading recommendations for the week, with books from Megan Dowd Lambert and Jessica Lanan, Juleah del Rosario, and Douglas Stuart.

New York Times bestselling novelist Lidia Yuknavitch (The Book of Joan, etc.) joins us on this week’s episode to discuss Verge, a passionate short story collection featuring characters on the brink. She and host Megan Labrise discuss the qualities of misfits, communities as organisms, and gut-punch endings. Then our editors join with their reading recommendations for the week, including books from Candace Fleming (ill. by Eric Rohmann), Justina Ireland, Roman Dial, and Kiley Reid.

On this episode, Harvard Business School professor Laura Huang discusses Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage, an atypical career management guide that teaches readers to overcome implicit bias by turning stereotypes into strengths. Then our editors join with their reading recommendations for the week, including books from Cheryl Wills (ill. by Sue Cornelison), Maria Padian, Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, and Miranda Popkey.

Scottish crime writer Ian Rankin joins us on this week’s episode to talk about something quite mysterious: Westwind, a little-known, standalone techno-thriller he wrote in 1990, is being publishing for the first time in the United States. Rankin discusses what it’s like to revisit this early work after 30 years, what prompted him to do so, and the challenges his best-known character, Detective Inspector John Rebus, might encounter if he began his law enforcement career in the 2020s instead of the 1980s. Then our editors offer their reading recommendations for the week, with books by Julie Paschkis (ill. by Margaret Chodos-Irvine), Lamar Giles, Patrick Radden Keefe, and Benjamin Black.

On this episode, author Kiley Reid explains why she’s calling her hotly anticipated debut novel “a comedy of good intentions.” Such a Fun Age explores the complicated relationship between Emira Tucker, a 25-year-old black babysitter living in Philadelphia, and her employer, Alix Chamberlain, a white thirtysomething blogger/influencer/mother of two. Reid’s fun, funny, and incisive novel is, “Charming, challenging, and so interesting you can hardly put it down,” Kirkus writes (starred review). Then our editors join with their reading recommendations for the week, including books by Rebecca Roanhorse, Anna-Marie McLemore, and Randall Munroe.

Thanks for listening to Fully Booked - - but when’s the last time you felt like someone truly listened to you? Journalist Kate Murphy joins us on this week’s episode to discuss You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why It Matters, an investigation into why we’re not listening to one another, what we can do to reverse the trend, and the deleterious effects of distraction and disinterest on our bodies and society. Then our editors each share several of their most anticipated books of 2020.

12/31 Episode: Just in time for the New Year, “anti-guru” Sarah Knight shows how saying “yes” a little less might vastly improve your life. She joins us to discuss her latest book, F*ck No! How to Stop Saying Yes When You Can’t, You Shouldn’t, or You Just Don’t Want To, the fifth in her internationally bestselling self-help series of “No F*cks Given Guides.” Then our editors offer up their reading recommendations for the week, with books by Kaya Doi, Andrew Fukuda, and the Washington Post.

12/24 Episode: Happy holidays, listeners! On this week’s episode, editor-in-chief Tom Beer joins host Megan Labrise for the Fully Booked Year-in-Review, reintroducing two of their favorite interviews from 2019. First up is National Book Award winner Susan Choi (Trust Exercise), followed by visionary fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi (I.M.: A Memoir). Then our editors join with a look back at the spiciest book world scandals of the year. Trust us: you won’t want to miss it.

This week’s episode celebrates Kirkus’ Best Books of 2019 with special guest Carolina De Robertis, whose fourth novel, Cantoras, was a Best Fiction pick and Kirkus Prize finalist. (Our best books lists are the 100 top titles in fiction, nonfiction, YA, and children's literature, chosen from the more than 7,000 books we reviewed this year.) Then our editors highlight some hidden gems from the Best Books lists.

On this week’s episode, debut author Shannon Pufahl suggests her new novel, On Swift Horses, might make you a better card player (but she could be bluffing). Set in the late 1950s, her unique Western centers on the lives and luck of two characters questioning the hands they’ve been dealt. Megan also talks with #1 New York Times bestselling author and polymath Maggie Stiefvater, in an interview sponsored by Scholastic Press. Then our editors join with their reading recommendations for the week.